


The Six

by bessemerprocess



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark, Child Death, Consent Issues, Death, Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Grief, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Moresomes, Multi, Non Consensual, Prison, Threesome - F/M/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-10-04
Updated: 2011-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-24 07:35:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam Worth knocks on the door of an Oxford lab and finds entrance, instead of being turned away. One hundred and sixty years later, things are still falling apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sanctuary Big Bang. My lovely artist, lferion, provided the art. Also, much thanks to everyone who first read and betaed for me: elfin, palmaceae, and kuwdora.

Part I: In Any Other World

Old City  
2010

It's raining in Old City; it feels like it's always raining. Will Zimmerman can't remember the last time he'd seen the sun.

Old City is the domain of Helen Magnus. They say she is the most merciful of the Six. They say she is the most beautiful, and the smartest and the kindest as well. People will say anything when they know that their every word is being recorded. The Old City police department has been deep in Magnus' pocket since before it was even officially founded.

Will knows Helen isn’t the woman those words paint her to be--he is the good doctor's consort after all. He has seen her be merciful and seen her forgive horrible deeds. He has seen her at her most gorgeous and seen her naked in flickering candle light, laughing. He has seen her be smart and seen her solve the riddles of the ancients. He has seen her be kind and seen her rock a dying child in her own arms.

So yes, she can be merciful and kind and smart, but it does not mean Helen Magnus is a good person. It just means sometimes even evil wants to think of itself as the hero of the piece.

Will has known Helen most of his life; she saved it, after all, and then brought him to her fortress to raise. Not as her own, no - he grew up with Henry and Sean and Arthur, all under the tender care of the Big Guy. Will grew up as future staff, not a scion of the Six. Sean is dead now, Arthur gone to Watson, and Henry stolen by Tesla.

Ashley is still there, but she's always been set apart as the only child of two of the Six, as Helen Magnus' most prized possession. Maybe that's why Ashley has him out here in the rain, risking Helen's wrath to deliver a note he's not allowed even to think about. It's not that Ashley doesn't trust him; she wouldn't have asked him to do this if she didn't. It’s just that there are some things that are better left unexplained, and this is one of them.

Will leaves the envelope exactly where he has been instructed to. Back at the Sanctuary, he crawls into bed with Helen and hopes Ashley knows what she's doing.


	2. Chapter One

London  
1885

Helen sets the beaker down a little too heavily but manages not to sigh.

"Why isn't this working?" James asks out loud.

"I have no idea," Helen replies, and even Nikola looks a little put out.

They have been off their game for the last month, ever since Helen's father had disappeared without warning. One morning he simply hadn't appeared for breakfast, and no amount of detective work has uncovered his location. They haven't found any signs of foul play - not yet, at least - but they all suspect. Gregory Magnus was, after all, playing on the boundaries of science where others rightly feared to tread.

Helen isn't surprised when Adam Worth waltzes into her lab, even though she clearly remembers Nikola locking the door. Worth is slippery that way, and he's been hanging around lately, trying to ingratiate himself into their closed circle.

"Ahoy," Adam says, ignoring the glares pointed his way.

"For Heaven's sake," Helen says.

"I thought I locked the door," Tesla says.

"Oh, you did, I was just wondering how the experiment is coming along," Adam says, wandering closer to the lab benches.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be? A lecture..." John suggests.

"Must be very important, whatever it is. It’s been keeping you all quite busy the last few weeks," Adam says, perusing a lab notebook.

Tesla rolls his eyes and pulls the note book out of Adam's hands.

"Oh, I believe Mr. Worth has been spying on us," Nigel says.

"I believe you're right. Mr. Worth," Helen says.

"Adam. Please, you can trust me," Adam says.

Helen catches both Nikola and John looking at her, as if hoping she’ll deal with this intrusion into their lab.

"Secret shipments of plasma sounds really exciting, some kind of a new breakthrough," Adam says, wandering further into the lab. Helen makes sure the Source Blood is covered, though she has to wonder how much Adam knows to risk walking in here like this.

"I could be quite useful to you," Adam says when none of them reply.

John makes a noise low in his throat, and advances on Adam, who raises his hands as if surrendering.

"Top marks in my anatomy course," Adam says as he lets John herd him out the door, and the rest of them breathe a sigh of relief as John locks the door again.

"You have to admit he's brilliant," John says fifteen minutes after Adam is ejected.

"And British," Nigel says.

"Hysterical," Tesla pouts.

"Does anyone else notice anything odd about Adam?" Helen asks, hoping to bring the conversation back on track.

Tesla smirks. "He just pointed it out, he's British."

"Excitable little chap, isn't he?" James says. He’s already gone back to his experiment, though he’s not yet so wrapped up in it to ignore the conversation around him.

"Anyone read his monograph on forced tissue regeneration?" Nigel asks.

"The thing he did with door mice... poor creatures grew two heads," John says with a shudder.

"Very nearly worked though, a daring theory to say the least," Helen points out.

"I'd lean more towards twisted myself," Nigel says.

"Still, we need him," Helen says.

James sighs, and John says "Helen" like her name is a argument in its own right.

"He's far more experience with genetics than that of the rest of us," Nikola allows.

"He's a git," Nigel adds.

"We still need him."

"Fine," James says, and the argument is settled.

"I'll go and tell him," Helen says, and the men let her go.

***

Adam is scribbling a chemical formula on the wall when she walks up. It's something organic, something toxic if she is seeing things correctly. She doesn't say anything about it though, even when he hastily wipes it away with his sleeve. They need him, and she can't have scruples now.

"Join us," Helen says before Adam can attempt to explain himself or she changes her mind.

"You won't regret this," Adam says with a smile, and Helen knows she surely will.

"Come back to the lab with me, and I'll explain our experiment," Helen says, and Adam follows after her.

***

Adam slots in with the rest of the group easily enough, though Helen suspects that is because he's keeping his head down until he's enmeshed enough in their endeavor not to be kicked out.

He is helpful though; he is a master of organic chemistry, and considering what they are about to do to themselves, it's a skill they sorely need.

It takes four more months to figure out what had been causing the serum to be unstable, but with Adam's help, Helen finally figures out what she needs to do. Thankfully, Adam's not the one who gets to yell Eureka; his ego would as be as puffed up as one of Zeppelin's airships. No, the discovery is hers, and she merely smiles demurely and makes plans for what will happen next.

***

"There should be a service, Helen," John had said three Sundays ago. "Your father's been gone for six months now."

"He may yet return," she had replied.

"Then when he comes back, he shall have a good laugh at our expense," John had replied.

"Fine," she had agreed, and set in motion the necessary steps leading up to this event.

There isn't a body, and no one knows for sure if Gregory Magnus is truly dead, so the reverend does a simple service that Helen pays no attention to at all.

They go back to the lab after the service, because Helen can't face another person who wants to extend their condolences or suggest that knowing Gregory, he'll turn up after all. She's never truly believed he was actually dead, but the long absence is wearing down her confidence.

Still, tonight, she's arranged something to distract herself with.

"It's done," Helen says, holding up the beaker. She'd known this morning, before the service, but she'd wanted to give herself time, just a few hours for her brain to digest what she is about to undertake. Helen thinks if her father was here, he would be proud of her.

The men all look up from their work. It's busy work, things to keep them distracted and out of her hair while she finishes this last exacting step - not that she mentioned that to any of them.

"Done?" Tesla asks.

She nods. "Done. Tonight, we shall complete our experiment, gentlemen."

***

New City  
2010

Kate Freelander walks through New City like she owns the place. It's her city, more than Chicago ever was, and she knows everything that goes on here for all that she's not a native.

In Chicago, her father had been in the employ of unsavory characters of an abnormal sort. He died for it, but even that hadn't been enough to keep Kate away. Her mother had dragged her away from Chicago, but Kate has eyes and a nose for trouble, and by the time she was eleven, she'd been working for the monsters under the bed.

Only they weren't monsters. They quickly became her family as her mother worked her way through a score of new boyfriends who had no use for kids. Kate had made sure her brother was fed and in school as her mother drowned in her own grief, and she - she'd made herself into one of the monsters.

She'd learned to shoot and to hide in plain sight. She learned the abnormal world: the major players and all the species. She built herself a new life. Sure, she'd never have been more than a bit player in Toronto, normal as she was, but she made it her world too; a world that had come tumbling down when Jimmy arrived.

Jimmy is her big brother, her mentor, her friend, and occasionally, when her life is even shittier than normal, her lover. He's a Chicago native too, and except for being on the wrong side of a century old baseball rivalry, he's a good guy. That's how Kate falls for him, arguing about whether or not Cal City really counts as Chicago as he patches her up from a run in with one of Adam's minions.

He's also the one who'd gotten her out of Toronto, and helped her build a life in New City.

"Westside, you're thinking too much," Jimmy says, pulling Kate back to the present.

"Somebody's got to do your thinking for you, Jimmy. Otherwise you'd end up rooting for the White Sox. Oh, wait, you do," she teases, and he leans down to kiss her on the forehead.

"The mission is a go. Declan has me out gathering the troops," Jimmy explains.

"Oh, are we taking down the Cabal's little abnormal fighting ring on 5th?"

"Nope, this is the big one."

"Really?" Kate says, stunned. The big one is Declan's baby. This is the thing that they've all been training and worrying and wondering about for months.

Declan's been playing it close to the vest, but it's obvious it's something big. And big means The Six. And The Six, well, with Declan, The Six means it's personal.

***

Declan is another of the ex-Sanctuary boys. He's one of Watson's and has the accent to prove it. Kate doesn't know why he ran from the cushy life of a Sanctuary concubine, but she's known him half her life and she trusts him to his own secrets. She has enough of her own secrets anyway.

The briefing room is far from full. Just her and Jimmy, Declan and Ravi, and Sylvio, who slips in just as Declan is getting ready to start without him. Sylvio is their acquisitions specialist. He can get his hands on anything if you give him enough time and money.

"We're going to raid Griffin's prison," Declan says with a blank face.

"Damn," Sylvio says under his breath.

Jimmy just stares at Declan, and from the look on Ravi's face, he already knew. Kate doesn't know what to think.

Nigel Griffin is the one who takes care of the mess The Six leave in their wake. Dead bodies, civil wars, experimental subjects gone wrong, bastard children. Griffin does it all.

Griffin's compound is outside of Mumbai, a legacy of British colonialism. It's more fortified than Fort Knox and better secured than anywhere else in the world. Watson devised the security plan and Tesla handled the technology. Breaking in might just be barely possible; getting back out again, though, that's not.

"Tesla transferred Henry Foss into Griffin's custody two weeks ago," Declan says. "We're going to break him out."

Henry Foss is well known in the abnormal-aware circles. He's been Nikola Tesla's concubine for years now and the head of Tesla's engineering team for even longer. He'd been a present from Magnus to Tesla, and Declan had been there for the gifting.

The other thing about Henry Foss is that he's been one of their best sources of information for the last six years. It's hard to slip informers into Six strongholds, not so much because anyone is worried about ragtag bands of Sanctuary runaways and their collected followers. No, The Six are much more worried about the Cabal.

The Cabal's mission is to bring all abnormal life under human control. They've been trying to wipe out abnormals since they formed in the 1950s, and The Six are at the top of their list. Of course, The Six are pretty much at the top of everyone’s list, so no one noticed how much they hated other abnormals at first.

"What happened?" Jimmy asks. If Henry's cover has been blown, this will be a very different operation than if he'd accidentally spilled tea when Tesla was in a bad mood.

"We don't know. There is no sign that his role as our informant has been compromised, but we have to go in assuming it has been."

The best way to gauge Declan's mood is to look at Ravi. The two of them are as tight as thieves, and Ravi has more tells. Ravi has never been trained to kneel at the feet of one of The Six with an impassive face while they change the face of the world. Ravi's face is resolved but terrified. Kate's pretty sure Ravi believes Declan isn't going to come back alive from this. Kate's not sure any of them will.

***

Declan paces. He knows it drives Ravi crazy, but he's twenty-four hours away from finally striking back in a real way. He can't save the child he was, but maybe he can save Henry from a similar fate.

"Declan," Ravi says, wrapping his arms around Declan's waist and forestalling any more pacing. "There is nothing else you can do at his point. The plan is as good as you can make it. Tomorrow will go as tomorrow goes."

Declan sighs. "You just want me to stop pacing."

"I want you to come to bed," Ravi says, his statement strengthened with a kiss on the cheek. "Spend tonight with me, not locked up in your own head."

Declan kisses him back, this time on the lips. "I can try."

"That's all I can ask," Ravi says, and he pulls Declan towards the bed. "Just us."

"Just us," Declan repeats like the mantra it is. Just them, Ravi had said the first time they were together. No James, no Six, no past, no horrors. Just them.

They are tender with each other, there alone in the dark. Declan knows Ravi is trying to make it last as long as possible, drawing out what might be last touches, last sighs. Declan has to believe that no matter what happens tomorrow - whether he returns triumphant or dies alone - that is is worth the fight. Freedom, the Americans claimed so long ago, is an inalienable right of all men, and even if they hadn't really meant it, Declan believes that the urge for freedom, the need to fight and scheme and do anything it takes to be truly free is the mark of humanity, and thus, the most human thing he can do with this life is to free others from the bondage he once resided in, even if that fight calls for his death.

Ravi just wants him to come home safely.

***  
They've got a teleporter. He calls himself Erik, but Declan knows that's not the name his mother had given him. Erik manages to get them all to India. It takes the entire day; Erik can only take one person at a time, and he has to do the journey in four separate jumps. Still, it’s better then attempting to fly under both The Six's and the Cabal's radar while purchasing seven international plane tickets. Declan's pretty sure that James has his name on quite a few no-fly lists with orders to detain until he gets there. Even with some of the best fake IDs money can buy, he's not willing to step foot in an airport.

He hasn’t bothered with visas either; if anyone asks them for that much paperwork, the op is blown already.

The rest of the op is mostly up to Ravi. He grew up in Griffin’s Sanctuary and he knows the ins and the outs of the building. He also knows enough hackers to take down a good portion of Mumbai’s electrical grid, and how to take out the back up generators so that they only have to deal with the mechanical systems. Not that that makes the op all that much easier. Still, it does make it actually possible.

It’s only possible because Henry’s in the outer ring, though. There’s minimal security there and that means no one suspects this rescue mission. Or maybe it’s one big trap and they are all going to be in the hands of The Six very, very shortly. Declan can only hope for the best at this point; he has to keep going forward.

They reach Henry’s room, just as planned, and even manage to get the door open before some minion gets a backup generator online. It couldn’t be one of the original generators, those are all thoroughly trashed; Griffin must of had a backup supply of them somewhere.

Declan yells for Kate to grab Henry and then rushes to head off this new kink in the plan.

***

Kate grabs Henry. She's seen pictures of the man before and Declan gave a through description, but Henry Foss doesn't mix with little fish like her. He looks younger than she thought he would, and surprisingly innocent. She's been told he's a werewolf, one strong enough to survive both Tesla's lab and his bed; she's never seen anyone come out of Tesla's bed alive before. Of course, he's barely got a heartbeat, so if she doesn't get him out of here soon, the trend may continue.

She drags him less than twenty feet before Ravi appears and throws Henry over his shoulder like he weighs nothing at all.

"We've got to go," Ravi says, and Kate wonders where the fuck Jimmy and Declan are.

***

"Hello, lover," Nikola says, his breath warm on the back of Henry's neck. "I have a surprise for you."

Henry looks up from the transistor he’s fiddling with. "A good surprise?" With Nikola, one can never be too sure. Henry wonders if this has anything to do with the fact that Henry had found a grey hair this morning. It was the first one, and he'd complained bitterly to Nikola. Knowing Nikola, he's invented a way to turn Henry's hair blue on the genetic level, or some other such thing.

Nikola grins that infectiously wicked grin of his. "You'll see. Come on."

Henry follows where Nikola beckons; he always has.

Henry has been good with computers ever since he first realized that he could do more with them than just play games. That's why Magnus asked him if wanted to go live with Tesla in the first place. Henry had said yes, because Tesla cared even less about him being a HAP than Magnus did and was the smartest person Henry had ever met, and at ten these were the most important considerations in Henry's life. Magnus promised him that Tesla would teach him amazing things, and in retrospect, she was underselling the truth by miles; Nikola has shown Henry so many things he would have never gotten to play with otherwise.

Nikola wants to know everything the universe has to offer. He wants to master that knowledge and make it his own. Henry can understand that; he's always wanted to know more. He's just not sure if he wants to know enough to use the methods Nikola employs sometimes.

Nikola kisses Henry for the first time on his twenty-first birthday. "In my time," Nikola says, "you would've been a man a long time ago, but people grow up slowly these days.”

Henry doesn't tell Nikola that growing up slowly isn't something that The Six allow. Still, he kisses back, letting Nikola tangle his fingers in his hair.

Henry lets Nikola take him to bed that night. He's had a few drinks - it's not everyday he turns twenty-one after all - and he's maybe more nervous about this then he wants to let on. Especially not when Nikola is hopping around like a puppy on crack, and keeps looking at him like all he wants to do is lick his way down Henry's body.

He has to admit, it's better than he imagined. Nikola has an enormous amount of control and he's eager to make Henry enjoy the experience. Henry's worked for Nikola for his entire adult life, and Nikola is usually greedy and selfish. It's sort of stunning then, how much he isn't in bed.

It becomes a comfortable thing, him and Nikola. His labmates tease him about fulfilling the cliche. Nikola finds the whole vampire-werewolf thing entirely too funny, though, so Henry just smiles and ignores it, and eventually they stop leaving copies of _Twilight_ and _Teen Wolf_ on his desk.

Nikola leads him through a metal door, and Henry is slightly confused as to how they'd gotten there. He must have been too far up in his own head to have paid attention to the walk.

"I rather enjoy your company and I'm a shallow man. Grey hair just isn't my thing," Nikola says fondly, after the door closes behind him. "It would be stupid of me to not take measures to see that you are alive in a hundred years. After all, I shall be alive and I want you with me."

Henry's stunned. Nikola's a fickle man; Henry has seen him change his dinner order three times in fifteen minutes. Now he's talking about making Henry immortal and spending the rest of their lives together. Henry should have known that Nikola would show with a drug and not a ring.

Then he's strapped down to a chair, carbon fiber straps holding him down into the metal frame; Henry's got no idea how this has happened.

Nikola kisses him and then depresses the plunger.

Pain wracks Henry's body and he changes from wolf to human and back to wolf again with no control as he screams.

***

Henry awakens abruptly. He has no idea where he is, and he's pretty sure it's not his bedroom or his lab. It's not Nikola's bedroom, either. Then the memories come rushing back at him: Of being strapped down, of the needles, of Nikola's voice assuring him he was furthering science with his pain.

Henry looks around again, but this isn't Griffin's prison either. There are no windows, but the bed is made of wood and the comforter is worn. Nothing like the sleek, impersonal facilities Griffin prefers.

"You're awake."

Henry cranes his neck around to find the source of the voice.

"I'm Ravi," the man says.

"Henry."

"I know. We grabbed you from Griffin's prison."

"Are you Cabal?" Henry asks. He would have thought if they were Cabal he'd already be strapped to a table somewhere, with scientists drooling over which one of them got to cut him apart first.

"No," Ravi says. "We're what passes as the abnormal underground around here. We try to help."

"And you broke me out of Nigel Griffin's prison?" Henry asks disbelievingly. Nothing short of a team of Navy SEALs was breaking an abnormal out of there. Definitely not some guys living on the edge of society, hiding out from all the major players.

"I was born into the Mumbai Sanctuary."

"Oh." Mumbai is Griffin's territory. Growing up there might as well be SEAL training camp.

"Just rest for a moment. I'll go grab a more familiar face," Ravi says.

Henry gets out of bed to study the room more closely while Ravi is gone. He thinks he might actually be underground, and probably not in India anymore.

The real surprise is that Ravi's more familiar face ends up being Declan MacRae, alive and whole.

"Hello, Henry," Declan says, and Henry allows himself to be pulled into a hug.

***

Old City Sanctuary  
2010

It's duck and cover time when The Six come a' visiting. Nikola drinks the wine cellar dry and the holding pens too. Nigel means watching every movement and every word. James comes only when a mystery has frustrated him, and the solving of it usually mean replacing the carpeting again. Adam takes pleasure in loosing his rage and his honeyed tongue on the staff. And then there is John; when John comes to visit, half the Fortress evacuates to a safe distance and those that can't update their wills.

John Druitt, colloquially known as Jack the Ripper, is Helen Magnus' lover and the father of her child. He's also The Six's assassin. He has personally killed more people than anything besides disease and nuclear weapons.

Will saw John Druitt kneel for Helen Magnus once, long ago. No one knows that he saw; his life would be worth nothing if they did. Will kneels for Helen all the time; she likes her men on their knees, but that's his role. John Druitt is one of the Six. He kills women because he enjoys it. But for Helen, John kneels. She may not be the most merciful of the Six, but Will knows she is the most terrifying.

When all The Six are together, empires crumbles and kings bow on bended knee. There is nothing in this world that can stand against them.

***

"The others are coming for dinner," Helen mentions offhandedly at breakfast. "Let the cook know."

Will does as she asks, setting the kitchen staff into a flurry of activity. Usually this is the Big Guy's job, but he is out camping with Thomas and Andre, the latest additions to Magnus' collection of strays, and so in his absence, Will is filling in as the house majordomo. This means since Magnus is scheduled to be in conference calls with the other heads of house all day long, he's the one responsible for making arrangements and warning as many people as he can.

Food and accommodations have to be prepared. Supplies need to be acquired, and the youngest members of the Sanctuary need to be sent to the safe house in New City. Magnus might find the Big Guy's protocols amusingly paranoid, but she doesn't forbid them, so Will is going to follow them to a T.

Paranoia is better than funerals.

***

"Will," Ashley calls as he rushes from the SHU to the armory. "Is it true?"

"Yeah," Will replies, deflating a little as he stops moving for what seems like the first time in hours.

"All of them?" Ashley hides the shiver well, but Will knows she's just as worried as he is.

"All of them. Something big went down," Will says.

The last time all of The Six had been in Old City had been for Ashley's eighteenth birthday party. The event itself had been perfect, just as Magnus demanded. It was the afterparty, once the teenagers in gowns had been sent home or to bed, that had gotten out of hand. Adam and Nigel had been all together too drunk and Nikola had been egging them on.

"Damn." Ashley runs her hand through her hair. "Maybe they'll be too caught up in whatever the problem is to demand a command performance."

"We can hope," Will replies.

"I'll go make sure the infirmary is stocked."

"Thanks." They lock eyes for a moment, and Ashley hugs him quickly before rushing off.

*

Watson is the first to arrive with a whole convoy in tow. The man never comes empty handed. There is wine for the cellars, abnormals for the SHU and presents for Ashley. There are also thirty members of his entourage to find housing for. Of all The Six, Watson is the easiest to deal with, as long as the scotch and the cocaine run freely. It doesn't hurt that Watson has always liked Will. Once he has been welcomed and the formalities are observed, Watson waves Will off and heads to the parlor that has been prepared for The Six this evening. He's spent the most time here out of the other Six, and he knows his way around better than even Will.

Worth arrives next. He comes by himself, but not empty handed. Will takes the bottle of scotch and gives it to Maddie to run down to the study while Worth and Helen exchange greetings.

"Dr. Watson is already in the parlor, sir," Will says.

"Ah, concubine," Worth says - he never bothers to learn any of their names - "Shall you be joining us?"

"I'm afraid I'm acting as majordomo tonight, sir."

"Ah, a pity. Helen's concubines are always such a entertaining lot," Worth says, and then heads off to join Watson. Will suppresses a shiver. He once watched Worth talk a woman into plunging a knife into her own leg with a single word. The Source Blood had gifted him with the power of persuasion, which, coupled with the rage he harbors toward all normals, is a deadly, deadly thing.

Griffin and Tesla arrive together, mid-argument. Helen cuts them off. "Gentlemen. May I offer you the hospitality of the house?"

"Wine," Tesla commands, and one of the girls steps forward to hand him a glass of red. He rolls the stem, enjoying the wine's bouquet as Nigel hands off his coat.

"Just a place to rest my feet, while this monster swills his weight in Merlot," Nigel says.

"Dr. Watson and Mr. Worth are already in the parlor, if you would like to join them, sir?" Will says.

"Right on, my good man. Don't bother with the escort, I know the way." Nigel nods at Will and heads towards the others.

"This is an excellent red, Helen. One of mine?" Nikola asks.

"One of James' actually. We laid them down during the second war."

"Well, I suppose even James must stumble across a good thing once in a while," Nikola replies.

"There are another three bottles awaiting you in the parlor," Helen says, and even Will catches the hint in her voice.

"Ah, we're all here but dear old Johnny? Fine, I shall take myself off so that the two of you may greet each other properly," Nikola says with a mock pout before strolling off, wine glass still in hand.

Will clears the staff from the foyer with a simple gesture of his hand. No one wants to hang around for John Druitt.

"Shall I go as well?" Will asks.

"He may be a while," she says. "No, why don't you come here so that I may enjoy you."

Will sinks to his knees and leans his head against her thigh so that she can run her hand through his hair.

"You've done a good job with such short notice," Helen says, and Will hates the way the praise makes him feel safe and loved.

Druitt appears in a flash of orange. Helen motions for Will to stay on his knees while she greets Druitt with a kiss.

"Helen," Druitt says, face in a pleasant smile for once. He has come empty handed, which Will prefers to the usually gifts: the bodies of Helen Magnus' enemies.

"John," she says, smiling back. "It is good to see you again."

John tucks Helen under his arm - he is the only person Will has ever met who made Helen Magnus not seem like the tallest person in the room - and they head off together to the parlor.

"Will," Helen calls back to him, "Run and go see that dinner is served."

He waits until they are gone to climb to his feet and do as she commands.

***

Thankfully, Will doesn't have to be present for dinner; he just has to make sure that it runs smoothly. Not that that isn't a task in and of itself: Tesla sticks to red wines and rare steak, which suits Adam as well. Nigel, James and Helen herself will be dining on the cook's best work, and John of all people has gone vegetarian, in a move Will suspects is just another play in his long standing feud with Helen's cook. There is history going on there, but no one has seen it fit to tell him and so he stays safely out of it. He doesn't need to worry about adding death by angry cook to the long list of ways his life might end abruptly here at the Sanctuary.

The cook, Theferyl, is a hestaeon, and she's been in charge of the Sanctuary kitchen since the mid-1930s. She makes pavlova to die for, and more than one person has.

Helen Magnus has always had enemies, after all. Will's only witnessed it once. A Cabal plant had made it through four courses of dinner before the desert did him in. Will had been barely fifteen at the time, and he'll always remember the way the Helen hadn't even blinked as the man seized on the floor before dying.

***

Ashley is tucked into a corner of the kitchen while the staff bustles around her under Will's careful direction. She's lived under the shadow of The Six her entire life and one would think it would seem normal, but nothing that causes this much tension and fear in the household can be normal.

Will doesn't stop to talk. She knows he doesn't have the time right now, but he lays a hand on her shoulder and gives her a smile before rushing off to nip the latest crisis in the bud.

Will is her family, her big brother in every way but blood. Her mother has never had enough time for everything, and Ashley was often the thing that got skipped in the rush. She has a father - she's met John Druitt of course - but he never stayed for long, and he never seemed that interested in anything besides her mother. Uncle James had tried, bringing presents for her birthday and asking after her grades, but it was the Big Guy who bandaged her skinned knees and Will who taught her to catch a ball.

When Ashley was five and Will was fourteen, Nikola had come to visit and her mother had given him Henry to take home with him. It hadn't been that long since Sean died, and Ashley hadn't really been old enough to understand. She just knew that her mom had sent away a boy she had thought of as her brother and the Big Guy had said Henry wasn't coming back. She'd crawled into Will's bed that night, her teddy bear under her arm, and he'd sat up with her until she'd cried herself to sleep. She'd already known at that point that her mother wasn't any good with tears.

She wonders sometimes why her mother even decided to have her. Not that her mother doesn't love her, but Ashley knows that her mother could have chosen to store her for another hundred years.

Ashley sometimes wishes she was still safely locked away.

***

"So someone liberated Tesla's pet werewolf from Nigel's fortress. Why should the rest of us care?" Druitt asks, once they have retired back to the parlor after dinner.

"Except for the part where someone beat my security measures," Nigel grumbles.

"Except for that," James repeats, with a shrug.

"I may have been experimenting on young Heinrich. With Source Blood," Nikola says, as if this was simply a minor error, easily corrected.

"Nikola!" Helen exclaims. "Really, have you no sense at all?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he says with a shrug. "I wanted to keep him."

"Nikola Tesla, the man who first declared his only love was science, and then after a hundred years went after the entirety of the human population with the attention span of a gnat when it comes to his bed, wanted to keep someone?" James asks incredulously.

"What went wrong?" Adam asks, always having had more interest in science than in the bed games of his peers.

"The Source Blood gave Henry power over technology. He seems to be able to bring it to life, so to say. His control was imperfect at first, and he damaged several important experiments, and I, perhaps, overreacted," Nikola says. "But my coffee pot stopped working and the wine fridge refused to open for me. It was intolerable."

"You imprisoned the man you just claimed to want to spend the rest of your life with because you couldn't get your wine fix. You are such a junkie, Nikola," Nigel says.

Nigel is the only one of them who’s ever really had a socially appropriate relationship. He's outlived three wives, and he tends to think this makes him the expert when it comes to relationships.

None of the rest agree to his claim to expertise.

"So Nikola has turned his boyfriend into one of us, and Nigel couldn't keep him imprisoned. I'm still not seeing the crisis," Adam says with a shrug.

"I want him back!" Nikola says petulantly.

“He’s not a toy anymore. You shot him up with Source Blood. You made him like us. The Seventh, if you will,” Adam says.

Nikola pouts, and Helen ignores both of them. "I want to make sure that this isn't the opening salvo in a new war. My sources say the Cabal is getting riled up again. We don't need to be fighting a war on two fronts," she explains.

"We'll find Henry and the people who captured him, and see what they have to say," Adam says with a grin so manic as to make the rest of them wince. Adam likes making people dance to his tune, and if one of them isn’t there to stop him, disturbing things happen.

***

Will and Ashley sit in the hallway, waiting to be called on to make a command performance. When Ashley was little, these usually consisted of reciting multiplication tables or Linnaean classifications. Will is almost never entertainment, not the way Ashley is. Still, he's unwilling to leave her alone to wait.

The Six are still hoping that the Source Blood will manifest in her, he knows. Griffin's spawned a veritable football team of invisible daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters. They aren't long-lived though - all but one of the daughters already have died of old age. They aren't The Six, though, and the original Source Blood never coursed through their veins.

Still, all The Six watch Ashley, hoping to see the spark that transforms her from mere human to something more.

Adam ducks out of the parlor, and Will wills himself not to tense.

"We're going to be here all night. You two should be off to bed like good children," Adam says with a paternal smile that makes Will want to run. Instead, he nods to Adam, and grabs Ashley to make their escape before anyone changes their minds.

***

Adam ducks back into the room.

"We'll find them and I'll jump a bomb in. Everything will be taken care of," John says.

"Absolutely not," James replies, his voice full of anger. "We will capture every single one of these people alive and question them."

"James," Adam says placatingly, "that is quite a task. At least let us take out the humans. Or give them to me."

"I will not be dissuaded. Every single one of them will be captured alive. Anyone who kills one of them will answer to me," James says. He turns and exits the room without another word. Nigel follows after him, and Nikola sighs.

"And on that note, I find it is time for me to retire," Helen says, and she holds out her hand so that John may escort her from the room.


	3. Chapter Two

London  
1886

"It's ready," Nikola says, and Helen is entranced by the crimson blood in the syringe.

"You don't have to go first. John or I could have a go to start," Nigel says, his eyes just as transfixed as hers.

"He’s right. No need for unnecessary heroics. The side-effects are completely unknown." James paces the room, nervousness fitting strangely on his normally confident frame.

Helen stops herself from scowling at him. "Thank you, gentlemen. But this experiment was of my design. I shall be the one to prove its worth. "

John kneels down beside her chair and takes her hand.

"Helen, you’re certain?" John asks.

Helen keeps herself from sighing. "We’ve risked too much to turn back now. We need to know."

"Let's be about this," Adam grumbles, and John glares at him.

"You may proceed, Nikola," Helen says feigning confidence she isn't sure she really feels. Nikola is practiced with a syringe, and it only hurts a bit as the needle breaks her skin. Nothing prepares her for the consuming fire of the Source Blood in her veins. She grabs Nikola's hand and tightens her hold on John as her blood vessels are burned away. She does not scream, though she wants to. If she screams, it will worry the men even more than her obvious pain does now.

At least it is short. Most of the pain recedes within the first minute, and she lets John and Nikola help her to the sofa.

"Has it harmed you?" John asks, worry coloring his features.

"No, it hurt for a moment as it wrought its changes, I suspect. It hurts no longer. In fact, I am beginning to feel much better," Helen says, letting John keep a hold of her hand.

"Shall we continue?" Nigel asks.

Nikola retrieves a new syringe, and this time it is James who welcomes the needle and the fire of the blood.

James is braced for the pain, but she can see the moment the blood hits his veins in the tightness of his face and the involuntarily spasm of his fingers. When the pain becomes too much he grabs for John's hand and holds on until the pain subsides.

Afterwards, he drops John's hand like it never happened.

Adam goes next, followed by Nigel. John lets Nikola inject him, though he refuses both Helen's and James' hands, saying he is worried about hurting them.

By the time Nikola is the last left, Helen has recovered enough to inject him herself.

"By this act, we are made new," Nikola whispers to himself as she depresses the plunger.

It is silent as they wait for something to happen. This is her life's work, and the waiting is the hardest. She felt something change within her, this she is sure of, but what? And when shall she know for sure?

Nikola is the one to break the silence with a sigh. "I thought it would be immediate. Dramatic, even."

"Perhaps it did not work," Nigel suggests. "This is uncharted territory. We might have done something wrong."

"No," Adam says. "I felt something shift within me."

"I did as well," adds James, shaking himself as if a wet dog. "A most peculiar feeling."

"I am beginning to feel... light, perhaps," Helen says.

"Strangely giddy?" James asks, a boyish grin firmly in place.

"A bit, yes," she replies.

"It seems to be a side effect," he replies, "for I, too, feel it."

"I do feel rather oddly uninhibited. Similar to two or three glasses of wine," Adam says, brow furrowed as if he had thought hard about this particular fact.

"No, it is more like very, very good cocaine," James says.

"I wouldn't know," Adam replies.

Helen giggles, letting the euphoria wash over her. "This is lovely," she says, smiling.

"It is rather nice," James concedes. "I will, however, be horribly disappointed, if the only thing injecting one's self with Sanguine vampiris blood does is cause intoxication, no matter how lovely."

"It would seem to be a bit too much work for so little reward," Helen agrees, letting her head loll onto Adam's shoulder

"I don't know," Adam says. "I feel like I could do anything." He turns, smiles, and pokes Helen's arm.

John growls at Adam, the euphoria not enough to keep him from anger.

"Oh, go jump in the sea, Johnny," Adam says cheerfully, and John disappears in a flash of orange. They all stare at the place John once was in shock, only to jump in surprise again as he reappears a few seconds later, soaking wet.

"Well, that clears up what has been wrought in those two," James says. There still hasn't been any hint of his own transformation, and it is obvious that he's becoming slightly impatient.

"We know something actually did change, at least," Nigel says.

Everyone turns to stare at him.

"What?"

"You're flickering. Changing between visible and invisible," John says.

“Huh,” is Nigel’s only comment.

"So Nigel can become invisible, John can teleport, and Adam can control people with his voice," James says, and turns to Helen and Nikola. "Anything?"

Helen shrugs. "Not unless perpetual giddiness is the change, and if so, I shall be very upset."

Nikola laughs beside her. "I am quite enjoying it."

John tries his gift again, and this time returns five minutes later wearing dry clothes. "This is quite the talent, if I do say so."

"It will at least make it easier for you to sneak past your landlady when you're out late," Nigel comments.

"Adam, see if yours will work again," Helen says.

"Helen, kiss me," Adam says in a tone that makes the request a command.

"That is completely inappropriate," John growls angrily.

"And it didn't work," Helen points out. "I had no urge to follow your command."

"Kiss John, then," Adam says in the same voice, and Helen does.

The rest of the room stares on as the kiss lingers much longer than might ever be considered proper. James even clears his throat, but this doesn't stop Helen.

"Perhaps it only works if the command is in the nature of the one commanded," Nigel suggests.

"Then why would Johnny jump in the sea? He has as much use for water as a cat," Nikola argues.

"Surprise, then. Helen knew what Adam could do, and John did not," Nigel says.

"Helen," James says, his voice low, unable to look away, and Helen and John finally break apart, while Nikola mutters under his breath, "My turn next?"

"Nope," Adam says happily, "You kiss James."

"Adam," James objects, pushing away Nikola who hops toward him and mimes a sloppy kiss without ever making contact.

"What is this obsession with kissing?" Nigel asks.

"Well, I could make you punch one another, but that's even more likely to get me punched," Adam says with a shrug.

"It's not working anyway," Nikola points out.

"Either way, we should drink to our success," Nigel says, pushing in between Nikola and Adam before their fight can escalate. He pours drinks for them all, and Helen doesn't even complain about alcohol impinging on the purity of her experiment.

Nikola finishes off a bottle of red all by himself and then goes looking for more. John and James pass the whiskey between them, and Nigel pours white for the rest of them, flickering between visible and invisible as he does.

The alcohol on top of the giddiness hits Helen like a freight train, and she tucks herself under John's arm. James is in on his other side, almost as close, and Nikola takes the floor, pressing his forehead into her knee.

Nigel has an arm slung around Adam, and he drags him down to sit on the floor next to Nikola.

Adam squirms out of Nigel’s grasp, so he moves on to Nikola, pulling him close.

"Hey!" Nigel exclaims as Nikola sinks his fangs into the Nigel's forearm.

James and John pull Nikola off as Nigel sputters.

"Look," Helen says, examining the wound in wonder, "the bleeding has stopped."

"Trust Helen to get distracted by science," Nikola says, wiping his mouth. By the time Helen turns to chastise him, the wound has completely healed over.

“No biting anyone,” Adam commands, before Helen can scold.

“The urge is gone,” Nikola says with a shrug, “though, whether that’s due to your voice or the blood, I cannot say.”

“Maybe we should retire for the night,” James says, regret evident in his voice.

“Stay,” John says, and Nigel nods his agreement, and so they do.

***

They pass out on the parlor furniture, and it’s a good thing Helen had the sense to send the help away for they are all in a dreadful state of disarray when James wakes. Clothing is strewn about, and empty glasses and bottle litter the tables. He should feel embarrassed, but even with the hangover he feels only contentment. He wonders if that is a side effect of the Source Blood as well.

He wakes Helen first, in case she is not as content as he is and wants to make her escape before the rest of the men wake.

"Helen," he whispers, shaking her shoulder gently.

Helen opens her eyes. "I feel as if I had been trampled by a herd of the Raj's elephants." She sits up and wraps a blanket around herself. She's only wearing Nikola's shirt, as far as he can see. Suddenly her face clouds, and he thinks she's about to denounce them all for the obscenity of last night’s activities. Instead she says, "James, we forgot to take blood samples last night!"

He can't help but laugh. Of course the science is what Helen is worried about, not the fact they broke all the bonds of civilized society last night, and if anyone ever found out, Helen's reputation would be irrecoverable.

"We'll do it now. I'll draw your blood, and then you can retreat upstairs and dress before we wake the rest of them."

Helen nods her assent and points to the assembled vials and syringes on the mantle. "I put them up there for safekeeping.”

"Good thought," James agrees, and then draws her blood.

Helen gathers the blanket around her and says, "I'll be right back," before heading up the stairs. She's just as regal in a man's shirt and blanket as she is in the finest of dresses.

Once she is gone, James wakes the others and draws their blood in turn before sending them to find appropriate clothing. By the time Helen reappears, they have set the parlor to right, and James has set up a microscope to look at the samples. It is not exactly a microscope, but one of Nikola’s gadgets. Still, it lets him look at things too small to see with the naked eye, so he calls it a microscope, if only to drive Nikola to distraction.

The parlor table is perhaps not the most appropriate place to set up a microscope, but James can work in any conditions and he doesn't feel like moving too far.

The samples are all interesting, but it is Helen's sample that he stares at the longest. He checks back several times as the rest set about acquiring clean clothing and then food. He almost misses it at first, watching a cell divide idly.

"What have you found?" Helen asks, settling into the chair beside him. He must have gasped or made some outward sign of his surprise.

James looks at her, the microscope between them. " I must do more testing, but I think that your cells create perfect copies of themselves. Helen, I think your gift is longevity, if not outright immortality. You shall never grow old."

***

This first time, Nigel and Nikola are out carousing, and Adam is locked away in the laboratory. When James realizes he'll be playing third wheel, he tries to excuse himself, but John looks at her and than back at James and says, "Stay."

She had known, of course, that John and James had shared a schoolboy thing; things John wouldn't explain back when she'd asked early in their courtship, but had caused him to turn red all the same. It had only been after the Source Blood that John admitted that those school day things weren't as over as she'd been led to believe. By then, she'd known the sort of thing John and James had gotten up to behind closed doors, and had given her blessing.

Helen has always been curious, though not, she thinks, too much for her good as others are wont to imply. "Show me," she had said to John, and after three weeks of demure refusals and finally ferocious negotiation, here they are.

"Oh, James, there is only us, and we shall never live as normal humans do, so why not take our pleasures where we want?" John asks, plaintively.

"It is unseemly and my own fault. You wouldn't have followed down those paths if I had not led you," James says, not looking at either one of them.

"It is unseemly for us to be here like this at all. Especially when John insists on running around in shirtsleeves. Our work in the laboratory is just as unseemly in some eyes," Helen says. "Unseemly has never stopped us before."

"This is not just a fancy of John's then? You, too, think that this is a good idea?"

"I think that John wants you and that you are my oldest friend. I think that there should be honesty between a man and the woman he intends to wed, and I think that the three of us can make promises to each other that shall be just as meaningful as anything John and I may say in a church. Be ours, James. Don't be alone. Don't leave us alone," Helen says and leans up to kiss him.

It's not like kissing John. James is startled under her lips, still until she kisses him into action. He is softer than John, more tentative. James kisses like he is cataloging her for further study, like every last detail is important, and he can't risk missing anything.

John growls low in his throat behind her, and she breaks away from James, worried that he has changed his mind. Instead, John swoops in between them to catch James' mouth with his own. The Greek vice, those who speak of it name it, but it is no vice in her eyes. James is flushed and pliant against John's demanding mouth. This is a thing of beauty, the way they touch one another.

***

Nigel leans against the bar, needing the support after all the drinking they've just done.

Nikola needs no such prop, for all that he's on his seven or eighth glass of red.

"If the lovely Helen, more beautiful then her namesake who launched a thousand ships, shall not have me, I shall not love," Nikola says, full of melodrama and not a little actual sadness.

Nigel had known of Nikola’s attraction, of course, but Nikola had put so much effort into hiding the state of things, that Nigel hadn’t known it was this bad.

"Aw, Nikola, what about wine?" Nigel asks, trying to tease him into a merrier state.

"It's not the same thing."

"Science, then. You love science."

"Perhaps you are right. I shall not forsake love; instead, I shall love science with all my heart, as faithfully as if we were bound together under the laws of the Church."

All Nigel wants to do is pass out in his own bed and hope for a quiet morning. He's obviously not going to get it. He'd intended to find Nikola a companion for the evening, and to get Nikola off his obsession with Helen. Instead, Nikola has now renounced the fairer sex.

Nothing good will come of this.

***

Helen is drawn back to the workings of her father’s Sanctuary a month after they injected the Source Blood. She has gotten wind of several werewolf sightings, and is determined to check them out.

“You should stay,” Helen says to John. “It’s probably not even an abnormal, let alone a werewolf.”

John looks abysmal. He’s been getting progressively sicker all week long, and nothing she says will keep him in bed.

“I’m coming with you,” he says gruffly. The illness is giving him more of a temper than he usually possesses, and he’s been a bit of a trial all week long.

“You can barely walk,” James points out.

“So I shall lean on you,” John says. “Now let us stop arguing before Nigel and Nikola give up and let Adam convince them to leave without us.”

The creature is sighted outside the city limits, and since Helen has strictly forbidden John to teleport until he is well again, they hire a coach.

It turns out to be a stray dog, but Nigel had packed a lunch for them all, so they end up picnicking.

After they eat, Nigel grabs James and Adam, and the three of them set off for a brisk walk.

“I’m just going to close my eyes for a moment,” John says. He’s removed his coat, and he proceeds to use it for a pillow.

Helen leans back against a tree with Nikola at her side and watches John.

“He’s not getting better,” she says.

“Is there nothing else to do for him?” Nikola asks. He and John don’t always see eye to eye, but Helen knows that Nikola cares more than he lets on.

“Not when I don’t know what is wrong with him. If I could only diagnose the problem...” Helen trails off, looking up at the brilliant clear sky.

***

New City  
2010

 

Henry wakes up, and everything is wrong. He tries to stretch, but his limbs don't work like they used to, and he gets all tangled in the sheets trying to straighten things out. He opens his eyes, and everything looks wrong, almost like he slipped into wolf form in his sleep. Except it doesn't work like that; he always sleeps as a man, even before he learned to control the change.

There is a mirror on the far side of the room, and even though Henry thinks he knows what he's going to see, he makes his way over to the mirror...

He sits and the wolf in the mirror sits, staring back at him. Every other time before when he'd transformed, it had been into a sort of half-man, half-wolf shape. This is full out wolf, though. Snout and paws and even a tail. Henry tried to groan, but it comes out more a high pitched whine. What exactly has Nikola done to him?

***

Kate knocks twice on Henry's door without getting a response. "Henry? I'm coming in."

She opens the door, only to find a wolf sitting at attention on the other side. It's white with tawny markings, almost cute. It cocks it's head to the side and whines at her.

"Henry?" she asks. It's not like the wolf could be anyone else, not unless they've been infiltrated by the Cabal or The Six after they'd been dosed with some crazy-juice. Even Nikola wouldn't kidnap Henry and leave a wolf in his place.

The wolf bumps his head against her knee and looks back up at her.

"Okay, so you're Henry and somehow you've been turned into a wolf. You know, I did not think this was how this morning was going to go," Kate says.

Henry just whines again.

"Let's go find Declan and see what we can do," Kate says and motions Henry to follow her.

They make it down the stairs without incident and wander into the kitchen, where Declan sits, both hands wrapped around a coffee mug.

"You're going to need that," Kate says by way of greeting.

Declan looks at her, looks at the wolf, and then looks back at her. "We generally don't allow pets."

"I think Henry might object to being called a pet."

"Henry?" Declan asks, speaking directly to the wolf.

Henry replies with the best head nod he can pull off in this wolf body.

"And I thought keeping The Six from finding him was going to be our biggest problem," Declan says.

"Any thoughts?" Kate asks, as she pours herself a cup of coffee and Henry stares at it longingly.

"Well, he's always been a werewolf, maybe whatever Nikola did to him caused this?"

"Even Tesla isn't that kinky," Kate says, and both Declan and Henry glare at her. "Fine, maybe it's a side effect?"

Declan ignores Kate and moves on. “So you can’t turn back to your human form? Have you tried your regular werewolf form?” he asks.

Concentration is visible on the wolf’s face, and then the wolf is gone, and there is a werewolf in the kitchen. The werewolf is just as quickly replaced by a very naked Henry Foss.

Henry looks at both of them, and his whole body blushes. “I’ll, err, be right back.”

***

"The Six are actively looking for him," Sylvio reports. "I've got six confirmed sightings of Druitt, Tesla and Griffin. They've killed three people so far. One of them wasn't connected to us at all."

"So they do know it was us who broke Henry out," Declan says with a sigh.

"That, or they're just assuming. They don't have a firm location on us, at least, or Druitt would've already jumped in with a bomb," Kate says.

"It won't be a bomb. At least, not before they try everything else," Declan says.

"Watson?" Ravi asks, his face radiating concern.

"He put a message out to the abnormal community sometime this morning. He's demanding my unconditional surrender," Declan says.

"Why would that stop them from jumping in a bomb?" Kate asks.

Declan manages to look paler than he normally does, and Ravi answers for him, "Watson wants Declan back, alive. We're not going to let that happen."

Kate looks from Ravi back to Declan and then to Jimmy, who nods just slightly. She'll corner him after all this, because if Declan is asking them to make sure he's not taken alive, she wants more information to operate on.

***

Jimmy's been with Declan since Declan left the Sanctuary. The two of them had kept each other hidden and alive that first year, and Kate knows how those sort of things translate into shared secrets.

"Declan just asked us to kill him," Kate says, once the door to Jimmy's room is safely closed behind them.

"He did," Jimmy replies.

“You don’t think I should get a little more explanation than that?” she asks.

“Should and will aren’t the same things,” Jimmy replies.

“Does that mean you know and aren’t going to tell me?” Kate asks.

“Come here,” he says, and opens his arms for her to step into. “Look,” he says in her hair, “I can’t tell you what happened between Declan and Watson, and even if I could, from what little I know, maybe you wouldn’t want to hear it, kiddo.”

“I’m not a kid,” she says. It’s a well worn refrain, and holds no bite at all anymore.

“I did some work for Magnus back in the day. I was only a contractor, and from what I saw, I’m not even sure I would want to hear Declan’s story,” Jimmy says with a shiver. “I’d rather be dead than in their hands, and none of them are even gunning for me.”

“Okay,” Kate says, head still on Jimmy’s shoulder, “I guess I get it. I wouldn’t want to be captured by them either.

***

Declan lets Ravi curl himself around him. He can't decide if he wants to be alone or not, so he might as well let Ravi decide for him.

"I thought I was rid of him," Declan says. "If I surrender, they'll let Henry go free and leave the rest of you alone. You would be safe.”

"First of all, you know Watson is lying. Tesla isn't going to stop trying to get Henry back. Secondly, you wouldn't be safe, and I'm not willing to trade your safety for my own," Ravi says, holding Declan tight. "I promised you, and even you can't release me from that promise. I won't let Watson have you."

“James has always been a man of his word,” Declan says.

“To other abnormals maybe. He’s lied to you before,” Ravi points out.

It’s true, James had lied to him, and not just once, but over and over. Declan still manages to forget about that on occasion. He forgets about the lies and the paternalism and the unconscious insults. Not everything with James was bad after all. If it was, it would have been so much easier to leave.

“Hey, hey,” Ravi tuts, “Stop thinking about him. You aren’t going to turn yourself in, and we’ll keep Henry safe until he’s strong enough to fight back.”

***

Old City Sanctuary  
2010

John wakes up hungover and in Helen's bed. At least one of those things is enjoyable, so he doesn't complain too much when Helen kicks him out of the bed and shoos him toward the shower.

He has pride of place in Helen's bed, but it has been over a hundred and fifty years since he was its only inhabitant, and he had done half the inviting to get James in there with them in the first place. He's slept with all The Six, and so has she, they've lived so many lifetimes. She always spends the first night with him alone, though, and what more can he ask for?

Her bathroom is palatial, and the one place in the building that embraces all the luxuries of modern technology. Her shower is marble tile, big enough for six, with benches and five shower heads. It's a modern paradise. Her towels aren't bad either.

He leans back against the tile wall of the shower and lets the water wash over him. With the water goes some of the tension he's been carrying around. He can't relax fully; even without the current crisis, his rage doesn't allow for it. Still, the fact that he can stand here and simply enjoy the feel of the shower on his skin is Adam's work, and as much as he may hate it, he is grateful to him for harnessing the monster in his head.

John tries not to think of what would have happened if they had spurned Adam's offer to join them all those years ago. He wonders if the rest of them would have figured out how to shove his monster into a cage of their own making, or if he would have slaughtered them all. He wishes away the visions of his hands covered in Helen and James' blood, puts his face under the water and tries to remember that in this world he was given a reprieve.

He is still a killer, but not the killer of his friends and lovers, and that has to be enough for him.

By the time John dresses and makes his way downstairs, Helen has already eaten breakfast. The sideboard is still laden with food, however, so he takes his fill and joins Nikola and Adam at the table. In some ways, it might as well be 1886 again, but in others, it's an entirely new world.

***

"We have a location on the safe house," Nigel says when John sits down. "They're not linked to the Cabal at all. Just some kids, half-human, half-abnormal."

“Just as James said,” Adam adds.

“And wouldn’t we all like to know how James knew that?” John mutters.

“James knows everything,” Nigel says.

“Smartest man in the world, or so he keeps reminding us,” Adam chimes in.

Helen appears with Nigel at her side, but waves off their gestures towards breakfast. “I’ve already eaten, but I hear there is a confirmed location on Mr. Foss?”

“James’ information turned out to be spot on,” Adam says.

“I’m going to take Nigel and Nikola,” John says rising from the breakfast table.

“Asking is polite,” Nikola huffs.

“I somehow doubt you would turn me down,” John says.

“Will that be a large enough force?” Helen asks, cutting Nikola off before his irritation can turn into a full on sulk.

"Really, between Nigel and Nikola, I should have more than enough help taking out a bunch of humans," John says.

"Still, who knows what sort of what abnormals they have recruited to their cause," Helen says. "Best to be careful."

John leans down and gently kisses her on the lips. "I shall do my utmost."

“Ready?” John turns to Nikola and asks.

“Yes, fine.”

“Nigel?”

“Good to go.”

John grabs Nigel and Nikola each by the arm and all three of them disappear in a swirl of orange.

***

"It's finally quiet around here," James says with a sigh, sinking down into the parlor couch.

"Some of us still have actual work to do. We've had several reports of abnormal-on-normal violence in the Yukon," Helen says, but she sits down beside him anyway.

"That's more like it. You can straighten everything out this afternoon," James says, and pulls her to his side.

She rests her head against his shoulder. "I should be working," she says again, halfheartedly.

"There is nothing you can do until the others return. You may as well get some rest now so that you're prepared when the time comes."

"I'm much too on edge for a nap," Helen says.

"Well, then, let me wear you out until you can sleep," James replies with a wicked grin.

"James."

"Don't ‘James’ me," he says, and pulls her into a kiss.

She sinks into the familiar feel, letting James envelop her.

“At least try,” he says. “I know you’ve not yet actually slept, for all that you might have been in bed.”

“Fine,” she says, and lets him lead the way.

He takes her back to her own room. The sheets she and John had mussed had been replaced, not that James would have cared.

He removes his jacket and shoes and climbs into her bed after her. She settles back against his warmth, and before he can even attempt to wear her out, she is asleep.

***

She leaves James sleeping, and pulls on clothing suitable for the office. She needs to check in on the Yukon situation.

Will and the Big Guy are in her office when she arrives. There is lunch waiting for her and a stack of reports half a mile high.

"Highlights?" she asks, gesturing towards the stack.

"We took a look at the data. These aren't isolated events. Twenty-two abnormal-on-normal attacks in three days. The violence has discontinued, but only because the airborne agent dispersed," Will says.

"Airborne agent? So this is a premeditated attack," Helen says.

"Yes."

"Cabal."

“This isn’t good,” Will says.

"Ugf," the Big Guy agrees.


	4. Chapter Three

Part II: Smash the Empire

London  
1889

It's easier to follow John than she thought it would be; he doesn't teleport away - just walks sedately down an alley like he thinks he is as invisible as Nigel.

She watches him, but he only has eyes for the girl.

“Still at it, Molly?” he calls to her, and the girl turns and smiles nervously.

“Oh...Mr. Druitt, you frightened me. No rest for the gifted, you know that,” she says, regaining her composure. Her smile is fake, but men seeking company in alleyways don’t generally care about the quality of their companion’s smile.

“Indeed I do.” John’s tone is almost cruel, and Helen considers stepping in and stopping this right now. If she does, though, she may never know if John’s proclivities run simply to easy sexual congress or if he is truly a murder.

“You shouldn't be in the habit of jumping out at the ladies these days, what with all the troubles,” the girl says, walking toward him.

“What was I thinking? Forgive me,” John says, and for a moment, Helen thinks she has been wrong all along, and that John is no murderer, just intemperate.

That is when she sees him pull the knife, and decides it is time to step in.

“John! This ends here,” she calls, stepping into the light.

“Helen, what a lovely surprise. Molly, I would like you to meet my fiancée. Or, should I say, former fiancée, Helen Magnus. Doctor Helen Magnus,” John’s voice is cruel. She misses the way he used to laugh and tease. She misses his voice low and husky and full of lust for her, his voice cheerfully calling to her or James when he had done something meriting praise on the cricket field.

“Doctor? I'm pleased to meet you, ma'am. Well...I'll be on my way,” the girl says, and she starts to back away. John is too fast, though, and he has his arm around her neck and a knife at her throat before she can even think to run.

“Stay. I insist.” John is enjoying her terror, and it is then that Helen truly believes he killed all those women in such horrible ways.

“John, let me help you before you make things worse.” Without her, John would have never been injected with the Source Blood, never been driven mad by his powers.

“And how is that possible? I've already murdered, what, seven whores? How could one more make the slightest difference?” he asks, his words calculated to cut.

“Murdered?” the girl asks queasily, but before she can say more, John cuts her off with a hand over her mouth.

“What more have I to lose?” John asks.

“Your power's driving you mad, John. I can help.” She does not yet know how she will do this, but she is certain that between them all, they can save him.

“My power is all I have left.”

Helen Magnus has known John Druitt for years, and she knows he isn’t going to stop unless she stops him, so she raises her revolver and demands, “Let her go.”

John’s smile turns cruel. “As the lady wishes,” he says, and for a second, it appears as if the girl will go free. Instead, just as Helen can see hope hit the girl’s eyes, John reaches out and slits her throat.

Helen pulls the trigger twice before the body even hits the ground, but John jumps away, leaving her alone in an alley with a dead girl. The girl bleeds out before Helen can do anything and as much as she is loath to leave her there, Helen cannot be seen by the police.

***

Helen is hoping to find the house dark when she returns, but the parlor lights are blazing. She doesn't want to deal with any of them right now, she just wants to clean the blood off her hands and sleep until this nightmare is over. But duty must, and so Helen steels herself to enter her own house.

James must hear the noise of her entry, because he comes out into the hall to investigate.

"Helen," James greets her cheerfully, before catching sight of the look on her face. Adam has followed him out of the parlor, and he is the one who asks, "Dear God, Helen, what has happened?"

"John," she replies, knowing she should say more, yet unable to get anything else out of her mouth.

"Is he hurt?" James asks, clearly worried.

"No. He is the Ripper," she says, voice monotone.

"Surely not," James says, negating the proposition out of hand.

"I saw him, James. With my own eyes. He killed a working girl in front of me."

James chokes on his own breath.

Adam reaches for them both and pulls them into him, for all that he is such a small man. He doesn't do this, not human contact, but she's too distraught to question it.

***

She ignores them all for a week. A week of morning is nothing for a fiance, she's entitled to more, but her grief disturbs them all. She tries her best once she rejoins the world to hide how much she is hurting, but James' own grief is like sand paper on her skin, and they can't speak without the threat of tears. Still, she is no longer locked away in her rooms, and she eats what Nigel brings, and so everyone breathes a little easier.

They all wonder what John will do next; if he’ll run all the way around the other side of the world with Helen’s bullet still in his shoulder, or if even now he is skulking about London, waiting for a rematch.

Nigel goes to the room John had been renting, but it is all but empty. John has taken his things and hidden. They will just have to wait.

***

They wait a month, but there is no sign of John.

Finding a dead body is simple; finding a dead body that is tall enough to pass for John is more difficult. The scheme is James' own, but all the rest have agreed: John isn't coming back to London anytime soon, and they must see to it that Helen is protected and that John's family has some closure.

James and Nigel finally agree on a body and set the wheels in motion for John Druitt to die.

James could have suggested a boating accident or some other benign thing - he is a genius, after all - but no matter how smart he is, James knows that his anger is affecting his judgment. He suggests suicide, and Nigel agrees.

They write a note, dump the body in John's clothes, and arrange to have it found floating in the Thames.

The police find the body, and James identifies it as John’s. It is more painful than it ought to be; it is not as if John is actually dead. Except, it is - John is dead to James now. John, whom he has loved since they were twelve years old. James walks straight from the morgue to the box were he keeps his supply of cocaine.

***

"It my duty to protect abnormals," Helen says stubbornly. "They clearly need it." She’s been spending more and more time devoted to her father’s cause. She keeps his Sanctuary running, devotes herself to its service, and tries to avoid having this argument with Adam ever time she sees him.

"And so does John. We turned him into a sort of abnormal, after all," Adam says, and she thanks him silently for not saying ‘you.’

"He killed people without any regret." She doesn't want to think about the things John had done. She'd cajoled her way into the morgue trying to prove to herself it wasn't him, and she'll never be without those horrible images for as long as she lives.

"We can fix that. I think the killing isn't of his own volition. You yourself said it was his power driving him mad. We can fix him," Adam says, and this time she finally chooses to let his power convince her; the Source Blood gives her some immunity to Adam’s gift, but only if she concentrates on not doing as he commands. She wants this all to have been a nightmare. She wants the John she knows back. Let Adam do as he would to achieve that goal.

Helen takes a deep breath and says, “If you think you can bring him back, please… please try. Just don’t tell me of it unless the outcome is positive.”

“Thank you, Helen. You’ll see,” Adam promises.

***

The sky is grey and threatening rain. All the mourners are hoping it will hold until the casket is safely away in the ground - all except Helen, would like the heavens to open up and flood down on them, leaving her and James to their private grief. James stands at her elbow, and Helen knows half the crowd expects that he'll marry her as soon as she's out of her mourning clothes. At the moment she can barely stand to look at him; every time she does, she sees her own grief reflected back at her, and her heart breaks all over again.

The funeral is short, and people avoid her eyes. She doesn’t want to have to speak with any of them anyway. Instead, she makes James take her home and buries herself in the minutiae of keeping and feeding her abnormals.

***

It takes six months and five more dead women before they figure out how to keep John from teleporting. It's mostly Adam and Nikola's work; she and James are too busy falling apart while trying to hide it even to want to be much help, and Nigel falls into caretaking mode without prompting.

Nigel's idea of caretaking is quite different from her childhood nurse’s; he makes sure the alcohol is fully stocked and that James has whatever chemicals he wants to inject into his veins. Nigel keeps the household running, mostly through ill gotten gains, she learns later. He makes sure everyone gets out of bed in the morning and that they all eat as well.

He steals the components for Nikola and Adam's device, and what he can't steal, he buys with stolen money. He’s the one that makes sure that her abnormals with more peculiar diets are properly supplied. Nigel deals with the bills and the house and the public; he is the one who puts up the front that the rest of them can all safely shelter behind.

***

John wakes up only to find himself strapped down. He can't move his head, so he can only see the plastered ceiling, but the table beneath him feels metal. He takes a breath and teleports away, back to his flat, but instead of his current lodgings, he finds himself right back on the table. He tries to tear at the strap, loosing his rage in hopes of freeing himself from this prison. Nothing - he's never felt this trapped before.

The rage throws itself against the inside of his head, wanting blood dripping through his fingers and terrified screams ringing in his ears.

Instead, he gets Adam Worth.

"You don't recognize this place?" Adam asks, standing over him. John can only see part of his face, but it’s more than he’s been witness to at any point in the last year.

"I guess Helen didn't share all her secrets after all,” Adam says, waving a scalpel as he speaks. “This is Dr. Frankenstein's lair. Helen's father's laboratory. He was a very smart chap. Perhaps as smart as Helen, even. His research took him in other directions, though."

John can’t see much, but what he can see makes his pulse race. The rage that has taken up court in his body would normally keep him from feeling fear, but right now he’s been abandoned to his terror.

"I promised Helen I would fix you, old chap," Adam says with a grin that scares John even more. "This might hurt a bit."

Somewhere, amidst his own screams, John blacks out.

***

New City  
2010

The Cabal are boogeymen, the monsters under the bed that eat bad abnormal children. The Cabal, rumors say, used to be human, just like The Six. And just like The Six, they had taken from abnormals and modified themselves into something else, but unlike The Six, they have done this so that they can wipe clean the face of the Earth of abnormals.

Rumor says they're building an army of creatures utterly ferocious and utterly loyal. Rumor has a way of coming true, and so Sylvio is extra careful when he trails the Cabal agents that have been sniffing around for Henry. Rumor works both ways after all, and no matter what the Cabal has heard, Henry would be a prize for them.

Their pipeline into the Cabal isn’t as good as their source on The Six, but he’s heard that Cabal hitters have been seen uptown.

They find him before he finds them.

***

Sylvio limps in the front door, right leg wrapped in a bloody towel. "The Cabal are looking for Henry. I just left three of their hitters dead up by the bridge."

"Shit," Jimmy says, just as Ravi says, "Sit down." The combination sounds amusing to Kate's ear and she starts laughing even though they are all doomed.

Jimmy sets a hand on her shoulder, and she settles under his touch.

"You okay?"

"Fine, fine. I'm going to grab the first aid kit," she says.

Kate runs upstairs and gets the supplies, pushing down the hysteria as she goes. The Six are the evil she fights every day, but the Cabal - the Cabal are things of nightmares. Abnormals caught by the Cabal die, and they die in horrible, horrible ways. She's been on two missions that involved freeing abnormals from Cabal control, and neither one involved bring the abnormal home alive.

They can only manage even that when the Cabal is distracted by The Six, but the first raid had convinced her that the Cabal was even worse than The Six. The Six just wanted allegiance and obedience; they wanted humans and abnormals to play by their rules and acknowledge their supposed superiority and bow to their benevolent rule. They might torture and they might kill, but it was for control. The Six were merely tyrants.

The Cabal were genocidal. They killed to wipe abnormals off the globe, unable to see them as anything but a threat to human existence. Anything was acceptable in the path to that goal, and Cabal had no scruples in how they got the information they needed.

Kate unwraps the towel from around Sylvio's leg and wonders if Declan might not be right about this death before surrender thing.

"I thought you could dodge any bullet," she teases Sylvio, providing a little distraction as she pours disinfection from the first aid kit over the wound.

Sylvio chokes back a scream. "Damn," he says, once he can talk again, "that hurt more than the bullet."

"That's what you get for using me as your source of medical care. At least Jimmy didn't have to dig the bullet out with a pocket knife," she says with a grin. Everyone knows that story, and it's enough to get a weak smile from Sylvio.

“And that’s why I don’t to come to Jimmy for my medical care,” Sylvio replies.

Once Sylvio is finally patched up, Declan slams through the front door.

"We need to move. Our best source just passed on information that The Six may know where we are," Declan announces, trying to keep his voice calm and only partially succeeding. Kate is thrown for a moment. Her brain is still caught up on the Cabal, and she hadn’t been expecting a second threat in less than an hour. How is this even fair?

"It's going to be one of those days," Sylvio says, shaking his head.

People scatter, grabbing necessaries and following the preplanned escape routes. Declan is nothing if not thorough; they’ve done this drill a million times.

There aren't that many people living in this particular safe house, and most of the ones who normally stay here were sent away when they had decided to bring Henry here. Still, evacuating eleven people is more work than one might think, and even with the best intentions, they are running behind schedule.

Henry is the first to go, safely off with Jimmy and Sylvio before the announcement even has time to sink in. They pack him into a car and peel out of the driveway as Ravi organizes the second round. Kate and Declan are the last out, after making one last sweep of the house.

Declan slides into the driver's seat and waves for her to join him.

Kate turns toward the car when half of The Six appear before her eyes. Druitt is tall and bald and has eyes like death, and they move so fast she doesn't even get a good look at the other two. She goes down hard, head bouncing against the concrete floor. The last thing she sees before it all goes dark is Nigel Griffin's grinning face.

***

Declan sees Kate go down, but he can't stop and expect to get everyone else out safely; he's got Ravi and Sarah in the car, and he tells himself that there is no way to get to Kate before Druitt teleports her away. It's the truth - Declan is simply out gunned, but it kills him to drive away. He's seen what The Six do to prisoners, been the reward for some unlucky prisoner forced to confess, seen the state they were in when they were given to him. Decaln shakes his head to clear away the memories and keep driving. James told him once that Druitt can't teleport into a moving vehicle, and so he has to keep moving until he's sure that no one is following them.

Magnus owns the cops, and privacy laws have never stopped her from taking over the CCTV network at need, so he drives in circles, avoiding cameras and the cops until he’s mostly certain no one is following him. It is dusk by the time he connects with the others.

***

“Where’s Kate?” Jimmy asks, once Declan is through the front door and Kate doesn’t follow him.

“Druitt grabbed her,” Declan reports, his voice flat.

"Kate is a normal. What if they give her to Worth?" Jimmy asks angrily. "He'll..." Jimmy trails off, unable to complete the sentence.

"Me. They want me," Henry says. "You have to trade. Nikola won’t let them hurt me.”

"We can't trade you for Kate," Declan says. He knows exactly what Nikola Tesla will do, and he knows what Worth will do. There has to be a way to stop it all.

"Jimmy is right. You can't let Worth gets his hands on her."

"I know what Worth will do. I've seen him do it," Declan says. "I still can't trade Henry for Kate." Bile rolls in his stomach. There's nothing left there for Declan to throw up; he'd emptied his stomach of a week’s worth of meals almost as soon as he thought it was safe enough to stop the car for a moment.

Declan takes a deep breath and says, “I’m going to call James.”

***

Old City Sanctuary  
2010

John appears in the parlor with Nikola on one side and an unconscious girl on the other.

"We found her at one of the safe houses," Nikola explains grumpily. "From the state of the place, we must have just missed Henry."

"Maybe he's just not that into you," Nigel quips.

Nikola just growls at him.

“Boys,” Helen says. “Let’s wait to bicker until the prisoner is contained, shall we?”

***

Kate wakes up strapped to a chair. It's metal and sturdy and probably designed with interrogation in mind.

"The sleeping beauty awakens," someone says outside her range of vision. She sees the syringe first, her attention caught by the sharp point. It distracts her for a moment, long enough not to register that it is being held by Nikola Tesla until he speaks again.

"This should help loosen your tongue," he says, and then steps back so Helen Magnus can take his place.

"What is your name, dear?" Magnus asks, and Kate shivers all over. Magnus sounds calm and kind, and all Kate can think is how cruel it is to interrogate someone in a mom voice. She can't stop herself from answering, though: "Kate Freelander."

"And where can I find Henry Foss?" Magnus asks, her voice still too kind.

"I don't know," Kate responds, thankful that Declan hadn't had the time to tell her where they were going.

"But you did help him escape from custody?" Magnus asks.

"Yes."

"Did the Cabal pay you to do this?"

"No," Kate replies. The look on Magnus’ face is almost worth all this; that someone besides an organization of genocidal crazies is behind this actually manages to surprise her.

"Are you in any way in the employ of the Cabal?" Magnus tries again.

"No."

"Then why kidnap Mr. Foss?" she asks, obviously curious by this point.

"Declan wanted to rescue him," Kate says, and then curse the drugs for letting his name slip.

"Declan MacRae?" There’s that look of surprise again.

"Yes."

Magnus retreats, and she and Tesla carry on a hushed conversation that Kate can't follow before Magnus leaves, and Tesla injects her with something that sends her straight to dream land.

***

"We are getting more reports of abnormal on normal violence, this time, all around the globe," James reports. The events are disturbing, even more than whatever Declan has gotten himself involved in. "This isn't normal," he continues, "This is Cabal."

"I know," Helen says. "Will thinks the violence in the Yukon was caused by an airborne agent. Something of Cabal manufacture. It seems as if they've declared war." She sighs, and settles onto the couch between James and John.

“I’ll go and see if I can’t collect you a sample,” John volunteers. He’s always happier with a mission. “If it is a weapon, we should stay ahead of it.”

“Do be careful,” Helen replies, and John leans over to kiss her cheek before popping away.

Once John is gone, James speaks. “Declan called me.”

“I hadn’t heard that name in years, and yet, today you are the second person to bring him up,” Helen says, clearly fishing for more information.

James sighs. “The girl John brought in is Declan’s. He wants her back.”

“I gathered as much,” Helen replies. “I hadn’t, however, known that young Mr. MacRae was affiliated with people that would choose to kidnap Sanctuary assets.”

“He was a bit angry when he left us,” James says, not making eye contact.

Helen lets out a huff of irritation. “Seriously, James, your paramour set half the London SHU loose and demolished the building’s computer systems when he left. He would have broken you too if he thought he could have accomplished it.”

James throws his head back against the back of the couch. “It’s not as if I were Adam, or even Nikola or John. I never hurt him.”

“I think he would disagree.”

“Oh, obviously, Helen.”

“Whatever you did to this boy, he’s working against us now. You need to put a stop to this before something worse happens,” Helen says.

“We’re meeting tomorrow. I will make sure everything is settled then,” James agrees.

“See that you do.”


End file.
